"This day's experience, set in order, none of it left ragged or lying about, all of it gathered in like treasure and finished with, set aside." –Alice Munro, "What is Remembered"
The paperback indicia doesn’t include a publication date, but according to a couple of Web sites, the Paperback Library reprint edition of Danger Planet, which featured “Captain Future, inter-galactic agent of justice, whose identity is top secret, whose strength is ultimate,” was published in 1969, some 24 years after the original!
ABOVE: Brett Sterling, Danger Planet (New York: Popular Library, 1969), with cover by Frank Frazetta.
As you can see from the above image of the actual painting (which was painted on an 18.75 x 12.5 inch canvasboard panel!), the section with Frazetta’s signature, and much else, was cropped for the cover. Frazetta didn’t get an interior cover credit either. Because everybody knows it’s timeless action heroes like “Captain Future” that sell books, not cover artists…
The original reproduction on many of the following covers by Jeffrey Jones, all from the library of yours truly, was very poor, so my scans are sometimes not the best here. One exception is the last cover, Twilight of the Serpent, which actually showcases Jones’s artwork in more detail and with more lively colour than does the rather dour reproduction on the back cover of publisher Underwood-Miller’s lavish hardcover, The Art of Jeffrey Jones.
ABOVE: Robert Silverberg, ed., Earthmen & Strangers (New York: Dell, 1968), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.
ABOVE: A. E. Van Vogt, The Book of Ptath (New York: Paperback Library, 1968), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.
ABOVE: Samuel R. Delany, The Jewels of Aptor (New York: Ace, 1968), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.
ABOVE: L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, The Incomplete Enchanter (New York: Pyramid, 1968), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.
ABOVE: Peter Saxon, The Curse of Rathlaw (New York: Prestige Books, 1968), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.
ABOVE: Richard Meade, The Sword of Morning Star (New York: Signet, 1969), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.
ABOVE: Frank Brunner, Bedlam Planet (New York: Ace, n.d.), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.
ABOVE: Peter Valentine Timlett, Twilight of the Serpent (New York: Bantam Books, 1977), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.
My favourites this time around are the covers for The Curse of Rathlaw (1968), an early effort in which Jones’s attractive design for the vignette is nicely reinforced by the typography, and Twilight of the Serpent (1977), a later cover which displays Jones’s hard-won skills as a draftsman (or draughtsman, if you prefer), mastery of lost-and-found edges in oil painting, and increasing willingness in the 1970s and early 1980s to produce images that went against the grain of traditional heroic fantasy.
Keywords:Earthmen and Strangers, Kothar of the Magic Sword, The Book of Ptath, The Jewels of Aptor, Seetee Shock, The Incomplete Enchanter, The Curse of Rathlaw, The Sword of Morning Star, Bedlam Planet, Twilight of the Serpent.
ABOVE: Arthur C. Clarke, The Deep Range (New York: Signet, 1964), with cover by Paul Lehr.
ABOVE: Keith Laumer and Gorden R. Dickson, Planet Run (New York: Berkley, 1967), with cover by Paul Lehr.
ABOVE: John Brunner, More Things in Heaven (New York: Dell, 1973), with cover by Paul Lehr.
ABOVE: Keith Laumer, Night of Delusions (New York: Berkley, 1974), with cover by Paul Lehr.
The 1964 edition of The Deep Range by Arthur C. Clarke with the cover by Paul Lehr is a pretty cool find, I think. It’s a pity the artwork is obscured by the title, etc., but the book is in excellent condition, so it scanned fairly nicely, and of course, it is instructive to compare it with Lehr’s later covers, which, unlike The Deep Range, typically combine highly saturated colours with a strict adherence to traditional colour schemes.
Keywords:The Deep Range, Planet Run, More Things in Heaven, Night of Delusions.
Jones’s Scheherazade graced the cover of the Styx #2 back in 1973 (37 years ago!):
Styx was published by Winnipeg’s own Joseph Krolik, who was very active in fandom beginning in the mid-to-late 1960s, when he and a buddy, Andris Taskans, both in high school at the time, started a club called “The Science Fiction Fans & Comic Collectors of Winnipeg” and published a “clubzine” called Universe that ran for seven issues.
ABOVE: Ted White, The Spawn of the Death Machine (New York: Paperback Library, 1968), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.
ABOVE: Michael D. Resnick, The Goddess of Ganymede (New York: Paperback Library, 1968), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.
ABOVE: A. E. Van Vogt, The Far Out Worlds of A. E. Van Vogt (New York: Ace Books, 1968), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.
ABOVE: L. Sprague de Camp, The Clocks of Iraz (New York: Pyramid Books, 1971), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.
Even though I don’t much care for any of the above covers, I have decided to include them here anyway for what they reveal about Jones’s slow but steady development as an artist.
Keywords:The Spawn of the Death Machine, The Goddess of Ganymede, The Far Out Worlds of A. E. Van Vogt, The Clocks of Iraz.
Ragged Claws Network 